Elias sighed as he looked around. He was in the same bed when he had failed, the same ceiling looked down at him and Haoki stood beside him at the same place. Elias stepped out of bed, ignoring the smiling Haoki and looked out of the window.
"Hey Haoki, how many days till the compression starts?"
The respected duke smiled, understanding what Elias was going through, "three months."
Elias smiled and walked out of the room.
Each day there were Starlay or Sunlays and Dusklays in the first half of the day and Moonlays and Dawnlays in the second half of the day.
Each lay group had a hundred lays and was divided into five months; the date of Elias achieving the abilities of a combat warrior or a Laity was the the first lay of the second month of the Sunlay or Starlay group.
Thus, effectively, Elias had about 60 Sunlays left to train his new powers.
…
Elias soon joined the classes and received extra classes from Haoki about being a Laity, at this time he realized that Ladro was actually not a Laity or combat warrior, rather he was someone who was trying to develop a way of ascension without Chinen sacrifice with him having the backing of the Rengen and Heaief families.
These two families were extremely rich and had multiple dukes emerging from them. Ladro believed that the big breakthrough would be before the deities' disciple, thus he too joined Haoki's teachings.
Elias himself believed that there was no ritual without a chinen sacrifice which would grant anyone any strength. Moreover, he suspected that Ladro was going to use some criminal's heart and lie.
Elias formed a simple but fruitful routine. He would wake up before the first cloudless hour, or before 1, and go through a thorough training and stretching session till 3, for three hours that is. He would then go to the training classes of Haoki till 6 and then would wander around the city.
While everyone trained and honed their skills, he usually sat someone in a jungle or a park and stared into the distance.
His other classmates tried to make him his friends but lost interest after Elias pushed them away and stayed quiet.
After about six to seven Sunlays, Elias was once again sitting on a wooden bench thinking about the light powers he possessed. The moonlight and the starlight were two opposite but attracting forces.
Haoki told him that there were two equally important and simple techniques to use.
While thinking about that, Elias's eyes widened as he stood up with a tense expression. Elias hurriedly booked a carriage and asked the handler to go to the 1st pere.
Elias chuckled to himself from time to time while staring at his hands excitedly. He quickly paid the carriage and went straight to a bar.
Elias got out of the bar as quickly as he entered it with a bag of ice with him.
How can ice be so fucking expensive
It didn't matter anyway since Haoki was sponsoring him.
Elias returned to his room in the Haoki residence and locked himself up for a few hours before sleeping. For the next few days he bought ice and secluded himself in his room for long, great cloud nights.
Elias soon started buying honey and gum; by the end of the second month he had already spent all of his coins and Requim crystals on them.
Elias was sitting on the ground when he sighed, "I guess this much is enough". As soon as Elias sighed, the whole room glowed, with one half of it becoming dim red and the other glowing dim blue.
Elias laughed like a maniac as he glanced at the calendar.
...
Ladro sighed as he knocked at the same room again. This was the 80th time he had come to check up on Elias. He knew that murdering someone was especially hard, even more so when the killer has a moral compass.
While he also considered the possibility of Elias hiding something, the chances were low after he noticed Elias's behaviour.
Elias often did not respond to his questions and did not talk to him, staying alone while thinking about something. He was a serene person with an awful sense of social standing.
This world was rotten and absurd. He had been blinded by the dream of this world that he forgot its darkness. The old him had naively thought that he could find a way to change the ritual, but now he knew that he needed strength to reduce the pests.
Ladro turned around; he had been enjoying the free time and safe environment here and since he did not need any training about fighting, he often ditched classes and went to the library nearby.
He started walking towards the library as he pondered why Elias made those bizarre purchases and considered the chances of him doing some sort of ritual.
No one can be trusted. Life is never fair after all. I had masterfully forgotten that my homeworld is a breeding ground for evil.
He reached the end of the corridor before halting his steps. Elias's door opened as a bare man stepped outside.
The man had olive, tan skin with a muscular physique, his long purple hair reached the back of his neck, hanging around his nape as he looked around.
"Elias!" Ladro said with a loud, firm voice. "What the fuck are you doing!? The first competition at the tournament is 19 days later."
"Nice! I am ready now." Elias smiled before laughing.
"And put some clothes on." Ladro frowned as Elias looked down at his body and nodded. "Don't worry about me, worry about your experiment, frankly there is no way in hell you can succeed, but you can use a criminal."
Criminals are just pitiful folk pushed by their surroundings and nature to do crimes. They cannot even control themselves, why would I kill someone so pitiful? I should find someone who is a direct danger to me rather than a poor criminal.
Ladro nodded and turned around, his long, waving clothes draped around him as he walked out of the corridor.
***
Flieday frowned at the piece of paper in front of her as she read each word carefully. The message — or rather the threat — was clear. 'Do not come closer to the Moon Tribe and tell anyone about this.'
Flieday looked at Dawn's deep black eyes before shaking her head, "Stop suspecting me."
Why is she saying that? Won't this ruin our group's unity? The piece of paper already is something which could shake the group. Does she want to ruin this group that badly? No, she would not do something so crude to do that. Then is she forcing me into submission?
No worries, I just need to wait to find evidence; everyone slips up once in a while.