He opened his eyes.
What greeted him was not the same bathtub he had gotten into, instead he was chained onto something, and the ceiling seemed to be made from armored alloy.
'Home..'
He was most likely in a police station, and it was proved right when he lifted his head to look at the police officers around him pointing their guns at him.
"I am human."
Aether spoke, his throat felt rather dry, he had been gone for about 10 days. And the police stations sleeping pods were not the best ones.
The policemen slowly lowered their weapons, relief flashing in their faces. And then one of them spoke up:
"Congratulations on surviving your First Nightmare, Sleeper Aether."
Aether sighed.
'Sleeper Aether.'
Doesn't sound bad.
"Thank you."
***
It was not long before he left the police station. The police treated him kindly and offered him a meal alongside a shower. They also informed that the awakened academy would be waiting for him to arrive today. So he was heading home to pack some clothes and necessary stuff.
His home looked the same, although a bit dusty now. He packed his clothes into a suitcase and left the house, he made sure to close the doors and the windows. He would undoubtedly come back in the future when he became an awakened.
***
He finally reached the academy. The tall walls surrounding the whole building, it would be his home for the next few weeks.
The snow was slowly falling to the ground. It was cold and silent in front of the Academy gates.
Finally, the gates began to open. The giant, ridiculously thick sheet of reinforced metal slowly descended, creating a long bridge.
He sighed as cold steam left his mouth.
The end of the metal bridge hit the special grooves in the ground and stopped moving after a set of loud clicks.
Aether walked forward with a complicated expression on his face.
***
The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.
It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.
Fortunately he had missed the introduction ceremony, so he was brough to his dorm room.
It had a bed with a soft mattress, a table, a dresser, and a separate bathroom. The materials were new and aesthetically pleasing, the air crisp and sterile. It was warm inside, and the outer wall was equipped with a hidden screen that seamlessly imitated a wide window, opening to a picturesque vista of a snowy park.
He looked at himself in the mirror. Aether already had a handsome face as a mundane, now his features had turned even sharper, making him look good amongst the awakened too.
Unfortunately his left eye was still missing, he was wearing an artificial grey eye on the empty socket. But was planning to put on an eyepatch once he bought one.
He quickly packed his belongings into his dresser.
Switching to the academy uniform, he stepped out of his room and headed towards the cafeteria. It would be his first time seeing his peers around the campus, perhaps it would be good way to see how his aspect worked.
As he entered the cafeteria, he could feel some gazes fall on him. Unlike the older days theater performances were rather popular, so it was no surprise that some of them recognized the great performer.
Just as he was about to grab a tray, a figure suddenly stepped in front of him.
The woman had shoulder-length blonde hair that framed her head beautifully. Her messy bangs cover her forehead, reaching slightly past her eyebrows. Her skin was pale, and she did not bear any moles on them. Her eyes were eerily beautiful, cold. Her pupils were of the color green and a hint of yellow. She had high cheekbones and a razor sharp jawline. The woman stood as tall as Aether.
She exuded elegance and looked extremely breathtaking even in a modest school uniform.
Putting a hand on her chest, she lowered her head slightly to greet him.
"Greetings great performer. It is a pleasure to meet you in person. I am Theola of the Song clan."
'EH? Song clan? One of the big three clans? Their princess is greeting me? What the hell?'
Putting on a graceful front, Aether nodded and replied calmly.
"Greetings to you as well lady Theola. The pleasure is mine."
Theola gave him an elegant smile as she spoke up once again. Her presence seemed to be gathering the attention of the entire cafeteria, Aether was not a stranger to being the center of attention, so he was not uncomfortable.
"Your last play was great. I suppose your presence here explains why you quit performing. It is such a shame that I will never be able to watch your plays again."
"Thank you for your kind words. It is a shame indeed."
Seeing that Aether was not really putting much effort into the conversation, Theola backed away slightly.
"Have a great day performer. I would like to speak to you again if you ever have time for me."
And just like that she walked away into her seat in the cafeteria.
'Never in my life I thought a princess would be a fan of mine.'
With a sigh he grabbed his tray and filled it up with a good amount of food. Walking to the corner of the cafeteria, he sighted a doll-like boy and a blonde blind girl sitting together. The atmosphere around them was rather grim, they did not talk to each other either.
He nodded at the dark haired boy, who nodded back. He took his seat in front of them, then started to eat his food.
***
Soon, he found himself in a small office, sitting across from an administrative worker. The worker was very friendly, and started the interview right away. Even though she was just a mundane, she was actually really pretty.
She offered me psychological counseling. he just refused her, and then the conversation drifted to his aspect.
Most of the questions started with a "would you like to tell me" or "if you're willing to share", which made the whole thing calmer.
"Would you mind telling me about the type of Aspect Ability you received, as in combat, sorcery, utility?"
"I am not sure."
She nodded.
"Anything you would like to share about your first nightmare? Was it hard?"
He gave her a brief description of his nightmare. Leaving out the important details.
"I had received a true name. The Blasphemer."
The woman looked very surprised, but continued questioning him. Throughout the session, Aether gave brief responses. And it was after a while he was dismissed.
He proceeded to walk away into his dorm, and sleep for the night.
***
Early in the morning, he washed himself up in the morning, changed into the school uniform and cafeteria for breakfast.
The cafeteria was a bit crowded. After filling his plate with omelets and a chocolate syrup and a cup of coffee, he proceeded to sit at the place where he had sat yesterday.
"Good morning." He said to both.
Doll boy simply nodded. The blind girl said morning back.
Aether noticed that a lot of Sleepers were gathered around the large screen hanging on the wall of the cafeteria, their faces filled with excitement and awe. On the screen, a list of names was displayed, ranking the new batch of Sleepers from weakest to strongest, most likely deduced from the results of the interviews.
He noticed that he was placed on the fourth place, his true name was out for everyone to read. Above him was a scion of Han li clan, Caster.
On second place was..
Name: Nephis
True Name: Changing Star
The woman on the portrait had short white hair and gray eyes. She seemed to have a nonchalant expression and looked tomboyish.
Someone other than him had gotten a true name, and there was not only one.
On the first place was Theola. The song princess. Her true name was A Night of Affection.
'Interesting..'
As for the doll boy, it turned out his name was Sunless and the girl was Cassia. They both were on the last of rankings.
Aether decided to use his aspect on Sunless. And immediately some information entered his mind. He now knew about Sunless's attributes. Sunless was also not that strong, but he seemed to be extremely cunning.
That was all he could deduce unfortunately. But he would need to experiment more before he could understand the extent of his dormant ability.