The coward sat in the lecture hall and stared out of a window.

  It was a sunny day in Floracia; the rays of sunshine hitting his eyes caused him to squint, and he quickly turned back to the desk in front of him.

  Leo Caldera sighed. It was too nice outside, and he felt that something like a thunderstorm or blizzard would match his emotions more.

  Then again, the weather never had much care for his feelings in the first place. He didn’t blame it. After all, who would care for someone who was both {Selfish} and a {Coward}?

  It had been a month since the village was attacked. A month since Leo had abandoned his chance at salvation to save his own skin. A month since he lost everything he had to live for.

  He had failed to complete the tutorial and had been forced into the role of [The Main Characters’ Friend].

  Whatever that meant. Leo didn’t much care. All that he knew that he was stuck in this world, and that he wouldn’t be going home any time soon.

  “Hah.”

  Leo laughed emotionlessly to himself. After all that, 372 days of work, I’m back in school again.

  Sighing, he began rooting around the bag sitting on the desk. He might as well study before class began.

  At the very least, it would distract him from thinking. The sound of him rummaging through his bag could be heard throughout the empty room, and Leo grimaced as he tried to find the notes somewhere in the large pack.

  His hand touched a crumpled piece of paper at the bottom of his bag, and he paused. He picked it up, and stared at the handwritten black note, written on old parchment in a hurried manner.

  He stared at it for a couple more seconds before shoving the paper deeper into his bag. He found his quill and notes, brought them out, and began absentmindedly reviewing the previous day’s lecture.

  It made no sense to him. Leo had never learned about magic, for how long he had been in this world. He’d been too focused on getting home.

  A lot of good that did him. He was just a skill-less, selfish, coward after all. The system was right. Maybe that was all he’d ever be.

  Leo was snapped out of his thoughts when a voice spoke to him.

  “Hey, Leo.”

  Leo glanced up from his notes and found a golden-haired boy with dichromatic eyes looking at him with a tentative expression. He was well-built, and still carried that silver sword on his waist. A fresh scar hung off his neck, and Leo could see bruises lining his arms from the fight in the village.

  Leo stared at the only other survivor of the Korok Village annihilation.

  “What do you want Calux?”

  “I was… we were just wondering if we could sit next to you today.”

  Leo narrowed his eyes, and looked at the girl standing next to him. She also had golden hair, though hers was slightly lighter, and she wore her hair in a ponytail with a couple of strands covering her forehead. He didn’t know her name — just that she was annoying — and it seemed that she felt the same way towards him, as she was scowling at him with murder in her eyes.

  He turned his attention back towards Calux and fixed him with a glare.

  “The answer’s no. Just like the other five times you asked. I keep telling you I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “Leo… I said I was sorry”

  Leo, who had ended his refusal by staring out the window, snapped back at Calux.

  “Sorry is not enough. Did you think that you can ruin my life and then I’d be friends with you all over again? Life doesn’t work like that.”

  “I know. I know, but I thought that my village getting attacked was a dream, and I lost my memories…”

  Calux tried to protest, but Leo opened his mouth slowly and interrupted him.

  “Even if what you said was true, I don’t care. It’s still your fault. You brought death to the village.”

  “It is, I understand. But…”

  “I don’t know why you’re even trying so hard to be friends with me in the first place. You’re the golden boy. Rank one. Everyone wants to talk to you.”

  Leo gestured towards the half-empty classroom, and many of the students averted their eyes away from Calux.

  “You don’t need to talk to me, and I don’t want you to. So why are we having this conversation again?”

  “I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

  Calux spoke quietly, not making eye contact with Leo. Leo’s eyes flashed, and he laughed without emotion.

  “No. Of course I’m not. But guess what? I don’t need your pity. Don’t try to make yourself feel better by ‘helping’ me. Just stay out of my life, and maybe I won’t end up dying too.”

  Calux’s eyes widened, and then he stepped back, hurt. The girl next to him stepped up, eyes flashing.

  “You selfish, egotistical asshole…”

  Calux grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back. His eyes looked sad, but he nodded towards Leo.

  “I understand. If that’s what you want, I’ll stop bothering you Leo. Come on Aline, let’s go”

  He steered the girl around and walked down the steps towards another seat. She gave Leo a withering glare as he retreated.

  [Quest Failed (1/500): Reconcile your relationship with Calux.]

  After that, the class went by without a hitch.

  At least, it went by normally — meaning that Leo copied down the notes that the professor wrote down on the board without understanding any of it. That was par for the course, however, and Leo didn’t think about it much as the professor wrapped up the lecture.

  “That’s why it is crucial that you guys are able to open up your mana pathways and truly understand what they do, as that is what magic and your powers are based off of.”

  Professor Carius spoke in a monotone voice, seemingly as bored of the lesson as the students were. He was a thin, stick-like man with a oblong face and a mop of hair on his head, and he wore large, round glasses that Leo suspected he didn’t need. His nose was sharp and pointed, though if one stared at it too long he would conjure a pebble and chuck it at a student.

  It didn’t look pleasant, either — the pebble was of a size significant enough to where you could feel it, and the professor threw it hard enough to where most students couldn’t dodge it.

  Speaking of… as Professor Carius wrapped up the lecture, a pebble appeared behind him and launched towards a sleeping student in the middle rows, hitting him square in the forehead and jolting him awake. It left a small, red indent on his face, and the student rubbed it groggily.

  Professor Carius continued on.

  “Yes, yes. It’s important stuff, even if it’s review for most of you. And we will see if you really understand it tomorrow at the spirit bonding ceremony. Class dismissed.”

  At that announcement, the students broke out into excited chatter.

  Must be an important event. Leo didn’t know exactly what it meant, but from eavesdropping the people around him he surmised that it had something to do with magic. Maybe make his magic more powerful?

  Well, it didn’t matter much for him, considering that he couldn’t use magic. Though he hadn’t seen anyone else in the class use magic either, so maybe he wasn’t alone.

  These thoughts swirled around Leo’s head as he put away his quill and parchment back into his bag. They hit the crumpled piece of paper at the bottom of the bag, and Leo hesitated.

  Later. I’ll do it later. He shoved the crumpled paper farther into his bag as he made room, placed the notes inside, and packed up to leave.

  The seventy or so students in his class were filing diligently out of the lecture hall, and Leo joined the procession as he headed towards the door.

  Professor Carius was answering questions from Calux and a girl with rectangular glasses, and he looked quickly at Leo before turning his attention back to them. Leo didn’t think much of it and made his way towards the main hallway of the academy.

  Stellaris Academy is what Leo imagined a more modern Hogwarts would look like. Though perhaps modern was the wrong word — the halls were still made out of chiseled stone, and it wasn’t like it contained electricity or oil and any steam-powered machinery that they had on Earth.

  Rather, it was a more “bright” version of Hogwarts. As Leo exited the lecture hall, he was greeted with a hallway that could have been straight out of the books. It stood about one hundred feet tall, with sloping roofs that met together at the top. Students chattered with friends while light poured in from the large glass windows that lined the lower part of the walls.

  The hall was spacious, and Leo overtook some of the slower students as he began to make his way to his next destination. He had a decent amount of space, however — classes had ended for the day and most of the students were heading back to their dorms, and Leo planned to spend some more time in the academy.

  When he reached the stairwell, Leo found himself blocked by a golden-haired girl that stood in front of him, hand on her hips. She glared at Leo.

  What was her name… Aline? Leo frowned as he tried to sidestep her to get to the stairs, but she stepped in front of him, blocking his path. She had a scowl on her face as she spoke to him.

  “What’s your problem?”

  “Well, right now someone is blocking me from going downstairs,” Leo replied drily. “Do you need something?”

  Aline scoffed at him. She had that smug look on her face as if she knew everything about him.

  “Nah. Just wanted to take a look at the guy Calux was really interested in. I can’t tell what he sees in you.”

  Ugh. So rude. And cheesy! Leo scrunched his nose at her words. Hadn’t she met Calux a couple of weeks ago? Why was she so defensive of him?

  These questions popped up in Leo’s mind, but he realized that he didn’t need to know the answer. He replied succinctly.

  “I have no idea, either. Maybe you can ask him?”

  He tried to sidestep Aline to get to the stairs, but she stepped in front of him again.

  Leo groaned. This was like real life’s version of an unskippable cutscene. Aline held a finger up to his face, and Leo stared at it with the eyes of a dead fish.

  “No. Don’t run away.” Aline continued standing in front of Leo. She took a deep breath, and her eyes stopped flashing, instead adopting a serious gaze. “You should apologize to him. You really hurt his feelings.”

  Leo’s eyes narrowed. He took a step forward and stared Aline in the eyes.

  “Apologize? Do you know what he did to me?”

  Aline took a moment, glancing towards one of the windows before turning her attention back towards Leo.

  “Yes. He did tell me about it, you know. How he led that necromancer and assassin to your village and got everyone killed.”

  She paused.

  “He… he feels terrible about it. I’ve seen it on his face. It weighs him down every day. And I get that he took everything from you, and you have no obligation to forgive him. But maybe it would lessen the burden on him a little.”

  Her eyes were earnest, and they seemed to stare straight into the depths of Leo’s soul. And on a good day, perhaps before Leo failed his quest, he would have taken her words to heart.

  But Leo Caldera’s heart was cold. Empty. By now, the hallway and stairwell had cleared out; students had either seen the argument and went for another exit or simply ran past Aline.

  Leo’s snort could be heard throughout the area.

  “Nah. I’m good.”

  Aline’s mouth adopted a scowl, but she took a deep breath and spoke again.

  “Why?”

  Leo’s eyes flashed as he responded.

  “Why? I knew him for three days. The only thing I know about him is that he came to my village and ruined my chance of getting home. Why does he even care about me this much?”

  Aline’s eyes flared up, and she replied to Leo, her voice barely restrained.

  “Because you’re the only proof he has.”

  “And what does that mean?”

  Aline spoke quietly.

  “You know his village was destroyed too, right? By the same people?”

  Leo’s eyes remained narrowed, but he nodded. Aline continued to speak.

  “But what he didn’t tell you was that he lived in a village before that, as well. It ended the same way. Every place that he tried to go to, the Band of Fools would find him, then kill everyone in the village. Except for him.”

  She looked down.

  “You’re the only one that managed to survive them. So he sees you as proof that he doesn’t bring death everywhere he goes.”

  There was a pause after that. Leo digested her words, but his brain couldn’t process them immediately. They waited in silence until Leo finally spoke.

  “So what?”

  “…Excuse me?”

  Aline’s eyes widened in outrage. Leo’s eyes flashed, and he continued speaking.

  “So what? Why should I care? Because guess what? I don’t.”

  Aline’s expression twisted, and she opened her mouth to speak, but Leo interrupted her.

  “And what kind of logic is that? Just because one person managed to survive doesn’t mean he didn’t doom everyone else. All that says is that I got lucky. That’s it.”

  “You…”

  Aline stared at him, processing his words. Her hand curled into a fist, and her arm began trembling. Leo waited for her response, and her reply was cold with anger.

  “You’re just a selfish person. You can’t deal with your own problems, so you bring others down with you. Even if you don’t mean it, even if you don’t feel it, just apologize to him! It doesn’t do you any harm… it will only make him feel better.”

  Leo made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a snarl.

  “No. I’m not doing that. And I’m sick of people of coming up to me and telling me what I should do. Calux should suffer. Just like I have, every day since the attack.”

  Leo’s voice rang throughout the hallway. He took another step towards Aline and shot a withering glare at her.

  “You have no idea what it’s like to lose everything. To have that one sliver of hope that you had taken away by factors out of your control. I have nothing. Nothing to live for. And people keep coming to talk to me about it when all I want is to be left alone. So get out of my way, and piss off.”

  Leo stomped towards Aline, whose eyes were vengeful… and sad? Leo didn’t care. He moved past her towards the stairwell, and this time, she did not stop him.

  The individual weapons training hall stood on the far end of the academy campus, tucked behind the dining hall and the dorms. It was a place reserved for individual training with the blade, and it was about the size of a medium-grade parking lot back on Earth.

  It wasn’t a large space. Odd at first, one would consider, especially since swordplay and magic were the two main forms of combat in this world; most people often used a combination of weapons and magic while fighting, and the academy encouraged knowledge of both.

  However, the weapons training hall remained small and unused. Why?

  Almost all students in the academy were from rich and noble families, and those who weren’t were prodigies that were already either familiar with the blade. If one wanted to pursue sword arts or magical swordsmanship, they had instructors that tutored them from a young age. And those who only wanted to pursue magecraft studied magical theory.

  In other words, no one needed to train with weapons. Those who were interested in them had already done so, and instead trained with their peers through sparring at the Field of Ascension, learning how to do combat with different fighting styles and abilities. Plus, no one was interested in hitting dummies with their weapon for hours.

  Except for Leo. He had made his way to the building after his argument with Aline, and fumed as he opened the rough wooden door of the hall.

  He grabbed a wooden sword hanging on a rack and began walking towards a training dummy. As he did so, he nodded to the only other person in the room.

  She had long silver hair, usually flowing down past her shoulders, though today it was done up in a hasty bun as she slashed at one of the dummies. Her silver blade was tinged blue, and as it struck the dummy, the dummy fell over then positioned itself in its previous position — some sort of enchantment designed to support repetitive strikes at the same spot.

  Leo saw her here every day, though he didn’t know why. She was clearly good enough with the blade to not need it. Nevertheless, he had developed a favorable impression of her, as one who sees the same person at the same time every day does.

  She nodded back to him as he passed by her and set himself up in front of his usual training dummy. His mind kept wandering back to his previous argument with Aline.

  She was right. Leo sighed as he placed his bag down and began doing stretches.

  He was a coward. He was selfish. Every time that someone talked to him about that day he was reminded of it. And the system had even given him those aspects as [Traits], like being selfish and a coward was a defining part of his personality.

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  Leo couldn’t deny it. He completed stretching and held his wooden sword in his hand and positioned himself in front of the dummy. As per usual, the wooden sword tilted slightly to the side, and his hand stung — the blisters from his previous day’s training hadn’t yet faded.

  He should not have lashed out at Aline. But every time that day was brought up, and he was reminded of how close he was to getting home… he got emotional. Because it seemed like his final chance. He snapped at other people to make them just as miserable as he was.

  He hated himself for that. He hated himself for running away from his problems and being stuck in the same moment without a hope of moving forward. He hated himself for being useless and being stuck in a world that seemed to hate him just as much.

  Still, he had meant what he said. He just wished he didn’t feel that way.

  Leo glanced towards his belongings and thought of the crumpled piece of paper at the bottom of his bag. The thin piece of parchment felt heavier than it had any right to be, and it seemed to weigh more every day.

  Just like everything, it was another thing Leo was running away from.

  Three weeks ago

  “He wasn’t a bad man. Lieutenant Trugo. I worked under him during the Demon Wars. I always wondered how he was after retirement.”

  A tall, muscular man reclined in his chair as he spoke to Leo. He wore an army uniform that had three bright red flowers embroidered into his shoulders, and his purple hair was cropped to a short length. He spoke and acted casually, but his eyes were sharp as he looked at Leo.

  “But you weren’t that close with him, were you?”

  Leo stared back at him.

  It had been five days since the village had gotten destroyed, and the army patrol Mayor Trugo had contacted found Leo shivering in a cracked bubble outside of the village. They had taken him out of the protective casing, and after rushing towards the village to try and save it, found no survivors except for an unconscious boy with golden hair. After some moments of deliberation, they decided to take them back to Floracia, the capital of the Aetherion Empire.

  The carriage ride back was long and silent. By the time they had gotten back to the main city, Leo was exhausted, both mentally and physically, only opening his mouth to eat meals, drink water, and answer questions from the patrol. They had placed him in temporary housing and asked him about the events of that night. Today was meant to be his final day of questioning.

  Leo looked down at the floor. He scratched flaky skin off his arm as he replied to the Fifth General of the Empire.

  “Not really. He just yelled at me a lot.”

  General Vezifon peered at Leo for a moment, analyzing him, before breaking out into loud laughter. Leo winced as the sound echoed throughout the room.

  “So he did care about you.”

  He chuckled some more, then explained.

  “Back when I was in the army, it was said that you should drop out if Mayor Trugo stopped yelling at you. Because that meant he’d given up on you.”

  Leo said nothing. Vezifon cleared his throat and continued.

  “But back to business. You know why you’re here, right? This is the last line of questioning before I clear you of any doubts of suspicion.”

  Vezifon glanced at Leo, who nodded in reply. He didn’t know why he had to have multiple days of questioning to confirm that he was, in fact, a victim, but he acknowledged it as part of due process and was resigned to wasting a couple of days. After all, it wasn’t like he had anywhere to go afterwards.

  But to his surprise, General Vezifon tapped his fingers on his desk for a moment, and after looking at Leo, rose up from his chair and extended his hand to Leo.

  “You’re clear. Congratulations.”

  Leo looked at the hand in surprise and turned towards Vezifon, who stared him in the eyes.

  “I know the look of people who did everything they could to survive. And I can see regret in there, too. There’s no point in making you re-live the moment over and over again.”

  He pursed his lips.

  “I told the patrol unit that found you to not question you too harshly, but they clearly got a lot of information out of you and that boy.”

  He gestured towards the stack of notes on his desk, and Leo recalled the couple of days in the carriage as they made their way to Floracia. The army units questioned him and Calux non-stop about the incident, making calls through their stones towards command as they relayed the information. Vezifon grimaced.

  “New bloods. That patrol was made after the Demon Wars, so none of them had ever seen a village completely annihilated. And that the first thing to do when questioning survivors is to not do it at all, or if you need to do it, do it gently.”

  He shook his head.

  “But that’s their mistake. They’ll learn from it. Are you going to shake my hand?”

  Leo blinked, then jolted forward and shook Vezifon’s hand. He chuckled as he returned the motion, but gestured for Leo to sit down again.

  “Technically you’re free to go, but the real reason I called you in today was to give you something.”

  “Give me something?”

  Leo replied uncertainly — he couldn’t think of anything he could possibly deserve. General Vezifon raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes. I could have sent someone else to tell you that you were clear. But I wanted to talk to you since you’re the last resident of Trugo’s village remaining.”

  He rustled around one of the drawers in his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. It was old parchment — colored a pale yellow — but the ink glowed, and the whole paper had an ethereal feeling to it that one wouldn’t normally expect with a piece of paper. Vezifon placed it on his desk and pushed it towards Leo.

  “Mayor Trugo’s will. It stated that in the event of his untimely death, it was to be given to a random person in the village he looked after. And since you were the only survivor…”

  Vezifon grimaced, not finishing his sentence. Leo looked at the piece of parchment warily.

  “Uh… why is it glowing?”

  “It’s enchanted to only be read by its intended recipients. Used to be more common during the war, but now that it’s peaceful I haven’t seen them that often.”

  I guess that makes sense. Leo took the will and weighed it in his hands. As soon as he touched it, the glow faded, and he got the sense that he could read the contents within. But before he could open it, Vezifon tapped his desk to get Leo’s attention. Leo looked up from the will, and the general spoke.

  “Before you open that, can I give you a suggestion?”

  “Sure.”

  Vezifon hesitated, weighing his words, before he opened his mouth.

  “When he was in the army, Lieutenant Trugo didn’t talk much. He wasn’t all that friendly, and all the soldiers were scared of him. Including me. Later, after the war had finished, he told us that he didn’t like getting close to his subordinates because it made it harder to give orders when the fighting started.”

  He looked out the window, reminiscing about old times. He shook his head, smiling sadly.

  “Good man. But that’s besides the point. As I said, he didn’t talk much. The one time during the war that we got him to talk was when someone asked if he had any children, and he answered that he had a daughter.”

  Leo’s eyes widened, and his heart stopped. But General Vezifon wasn’t looking at him, and he continued speaking.

  “That was the most I’ve ever heard him talk. He talked for hours and hours, until most the soldiers around the campfire were falling asleep and he was still beaming and talking about how she had taken her first steps when he left for campaign. He said that he started fighting for her.”

  He turned his attention back towards Leo, a serious expression on his face.

  “I… I would suggest that you read the will with her. He really loved her, but I think that she was too young when he wrote it. And I think it would be good for you to talk to her… to let her know how he was in his last moments.”

  Leo said nothing. He stared down at his shoes as he digested Vezifon’s suggestion.

  Of course he had family. I always thought that all he did was manage the village. Leo managed to nod after a long pause.

  “I can do that.”

  “Good.”

  General Vezifon replied as he got out a piece of parchment and wrote down something on it. He handed it to Leo.

  “This is her name and address. When you have the time, please go over there with the will and talk to her.”

  Leo took the paper wordlessly and put it in his bag alongside the will. Vezifon clapped his hands softly and rose from his seat.

  “I think that’s it from me. Oh — actually, one more thing.” He nodded at Leo. “Since your village was destroyed and you have nowhere to go, you’ve been given a free scholarship to the academy. School starts in a week and a half. I’ll send someone to the temporary housing to give you more details.”

  “Ah, okay. Got it.”

  Leo hadn’t thought much of what he would do after all this, and he didn’t really care where he would go. He rose from his seat, and General Vezifon escorted him to the door.

  “Any other questions?”

  Normally Leo would have shook his head and exited, but he paused in front of the door and turned to Vezifon.

  “Do you know why he… why he sacrificed himself for me?”

  Vezifon stopped. He thought for a moment, and smiled.

  “Well, I only served under him for a couple of years, so I can’t say for sure.”

  He paused.

  “But I think it was because he saw that he could save a life. So he did. Simple as that.”

  “I see.”

  Leo nodded, and General Vezifon spoke to him as he saw him out the door.

  “Hey, Leo.”

  Leo turned around and looked at the Fifth General of the Empire, who stared at him with a serious expression.

  “My commanding officer gave his life for you. Don’t waste yours, alright?”

  Leo couldn’t find the strength to say yes.

  Leo brought his wooden sword down onto the training dummy with every ounce of his strength, and all it did was bounce off the straw mannequin.

  Again. That’s all it ever did — he had been coming here for weeks and he had never been able to even move a dummy with his strikes. All that time invested and all he had to show for it were blistered hands and a decimated ego.

  One more try. Don’t waste your life. Leo gritted his teeth, ignoring the open skin on his hands, and raised his sword up into the air. His muscles screamed with pain, but he brought the blade down on the dummy. It was his best strike yet.

  The dummy didn’t move. His sword clanged off of the dummy and he lost his grip. It clattered to the ground, and Leo stared at it for a moment. He knelt down, held out a hand with peeling skin to pick it up… and retracted it. He rested his head on his knee and tried to take deep breaths. But he couldn’t stop his thoughts.

  Coward. You weren’t brave enough to risk your life to go home. All you do is blame others for your problems. You make everyone you talk to miserable. You can’t even go to someone’s home to deliver a will. And even when you work towards something, all you do is fail.

  Leo closed his eyes, but the tears still managed to leak out. His breaths were shallow as he remained kneeling, trembling, in front of his wooden sword.

  Why… why did he sacrifice himself for me? He could have taken the bubble out himself. He could have fought the assassin instead of getting me out. Why…?

  A good man died for him. And Leo didn’t even appreciate him while he was alive.

  I should have died instead.

  Leo sat there for a moment, the sword laying on the ground in front of him. He was about to go pick it up and return it to the rack when a soft voice came from behind him.

  “Are you alright?”

  Leo turned around and saw the silver-haired girl standing behind him. Her hair bun had become slightly undone, and she was breathing heavily — a product of her training — yet she glanced at Leo’s tear-stricken face and blistered hands with a concerned expression.

  “Yeah. I was just a bit frustrated. Sorry you had to see that.”

  Leo moved to turn around again, but the silver-haired girl, after a moment of hesitation, spoke up again.

  “I… I wasn’t able to move the training dummy for my first couple of months here, either.”

  Leo stopped turning around, and his eyes widened.

  “Really?”

  The girl nodded.

  “Yeah. They’re specifically designed to resist physical attacks as much as possible. It wasn’t until I bonded with my first spirit and understood how to put mana into my attacks that I was able to move it.”

  “That… that makes me feel a lot better.” Leo replied. “I was feeling like a complete failure.”

  He tried to laugh as he wiped away the tears from his eyes, but it wasn’t quite genuine. The girl raised an eyebrow.

  “Don’t. I doubt any of your classmates could move this dummy, either. First year?”

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Third.”

  Leo nodded, and there was a moment of silence as he decided whether or not to continue the conversation.

  He usually wouldn’t. But look where that had gotten him. He was miserable. Alone. A coward. And selfish.

  But he didn’t want to be. So for the first time since he came to Floracia, Leo asked for help.

  “Um… while I have you here… can you tell me how to hold my sword correctly?”

  The girl’s eyes twinkled as Leo picked up his sword and held it in front of him, the tip tilted slightly to the side.

  “Oh. That’s easy. Your hands are too far down on the hilt.”

  Ah. I forgot. Mayor Trugo told me that as well. Leo smiled despite himself, and put his hands further up the blade.

  “Damn. I should have already known that.”

  The girl taught him for fifteen more minutes before she told him that she had to go. By that time, Leo had learned where to place his feet, where to start and end his slashes, and even how to parry the attack he was learning.

  “All you have to do is practice.”

  The girl chatted to Leo as she packed up her bag and placed her sword in a hilt on her waist. She finished the action and looked at Leo.

  “I think you’re on the right track. A lot of the people here already know how to fight, so they just train in the Field of Ascension, but I think that there’s value to practicing the same strike over and over again. Makes it more powerful when you bring it out.”

  Leo nodded. He knew that he had a lot to do to catch up, but he smiled as he held out his hand — now bandaged by some smooth substance the girl had given him.

  “Then I’ll keep going. Thanks for all your help today.”

  “Of course! It’s always fun to teach people things. Shows if you really know anything or not.”

  The girl returned the handshake, grinning as she headed for the door. But before she left, she stopped and glanced at Leo.

  “I’ve found a little bit of kindness goes a long way. Pay it forward, yeah?”

  “Will do.”

  She laughed and gave Leo a wave goodbye. He returned the gesture, and she exited the training hall.

  As soon as she left, Leo picked up his sword and stood in front of the training dummy yet again. His hands ached and his arms burned, but he brought his sword over his head and brought it down on the dummy.

  It didn’t move. But this time, Leo smiled.

  And tried again.

  The sun was setting by the time that Leo had finished with his training — the open expanse of the academy was now covered by shade more than light, and the chirping of the moxyls could no longer be heard, the early-birds preparing for the next morning’s sunrise.

  The campus itself was quiet; groups of students were interspersed throughout the open area, chatting quietly amongst themselves, while a flock of fur-owls flew languidly above them, looking for dinner in the nearby Starlight Forest.

  A stark contrast to the chaos of daytime on campus. Leo preferred it — he wiped the sweat off his brow as he began to head back towards the dorms.

  He had practiced for thirty more minutes after the girl left. That was when his bandages started to fray, exposing his blisters, and he decided that it was a good place to stop.

  He thought back to the girl. She was a good person. Leo’s steps felt lighter after talking to her, and while she definitely didn’t know what Leo had gone through, she still took the time to teach him swordsmanship and make him feel better. He appreciated that.

  There’s something to it, I suppose. Leo mused as he jumped over a random rock placed on the path. Kindness does go a long way.

  It was interesting, in retrospect, how a horrible day could turn out pretty decent. And vice versa — though Leo hadn’t had many good days recently to base that off of.

  Leo was humming on his way back to the dorm when he saw a small child crying on a bench on the side of the road.

  She had light brown hair and wide eyes, looking to be about 7 or 8 years old. As she sat on the bench, her feet didn’t reach the ground, instead dangling listlessly off the edge. Her face was wet with tears and snot.

  It was an altogether sad sight, and even Leo’s heart of stone tinged when he saw it. Normally, Leo would find a guard to help her — the campus was quite safe, and the guards were equipped to handle these types of situations — but he remembered the girl’s words, and how he felt receiving just a little bit of kindness. So he decided to pay it forward.

  “Hey, is everything okay?”

  Leo walked up to the girl and knelt down in front of her, keeping his face level with hers. The girl’s head jerked up, and when she saw Leo’s face in front of her, she screamed.

  Not exactly an ideal reaction. Wincing, Leo held up his hands to show her he meant no harm. Luckily there weren’t any guards around or he would have had a lot of explaining to do.

  “I’m here to help. Are you lost?”

  The girl had stopped screaming, instead opting to lean as hard as she could against the backrest of the chair as she glared at Leo. For some reason, the glare felt familiar. She crossed her arms haughtily as she replied to Leo.

  “My sister says that I shouldn’t talk to strangers.”

  “Well, do you know where your sister is?”

  “… No.”

  “Do you know how to get home?”

  “… No.”

  “Then you might want to ignore her instructions.”

  Leo finished his evisceration of a 7 year old girl’s logic and extended his hand out to the girl.

  “Let’s start over. My name’s Leo. What’s yours?”

  “Nona.”

  The girl responded succinctly — she still looked suspicious of Leo, which was fair. He imagined he would be the same if a random person approached him while he was crying. Still, he tried to be as non-threatening as possible as he spoke.

  “Okay Nona, can you tell me what happened?”

  It took a bit of coaxing, but the girl eventually revealed to Leo that she left home to find her sister and got lost.

  “It gets lonely at home. Sister is trying her best, and there are a couple of people from the village who come visit me, but it’s awfully lonely. I thought I’d make her some sweets and bring them to her. See?”

  Nona held out the basket that was sitting next to her, and inside Leo saw a couple of cookies with brown frosting on them. It was hastily done — and clearly helped by another adult — but Leo couldn’t help but smile when he saw “Do your best!” written on one of them with a weirdly-formed smiley-face. However, Nona’s face drooped after she said that.

  “But I couldn’t find her. I decided to come to the school she goes to, so I followed my way to the large bell tower, but I don’t know how to get back. And now it’s getting dark… and it’s pretty scary.”

  She sniffled as she gently placed the basket next to her. She looked small and alone, and Leo tried to smile gently as he sat next to her.

  “It’s okay Nona, we can get you home one way or another.”

  He saw her head swivel towards him, hopeful.

  “Really?”

  Leo smiled.

  “Yeah. You just have to answer a couple of questions for me.”

  She nodded, and Leo rose up from the chair and held a hand out to her. She took it gently and hopped down.

  “Alright. Let’s start with which direction you came from.”

  Stellaris Academy stood on a tall hill on the western side of Floracia, meaning that anyone in the lower part of the city could see its silver cobblestone walls and tall spires regardless of their location. It was one of the city’s centerpieces, along with the royal palace that sat in the center of the city, and looked as grand as its reputation. The academy being on a hill was meant as a symbol to show how the empire was raising up its youth.

  Or something like that. Leo would have preferred the academy being on level ground. Something about showing off what should be a mandated institution struck Leo the wrong way, and he also disliked the looks people gave him when they recognized his uniform.

  At the very least, the academy being on the ground would save him from having to walk up a thirty degree incline when he headed back.

  Leo and Nona were currently in a small alley off of Market Street, a place filled with walls littered with doors that presumably had homes behind them. The faint sound of people getting last-minute produce at the market tugged at Leo’s ears, and he sighed as he looked at the identical rows of doors in front of him.

  “Are you sure your house is on this street?”

  “Yup! … Maybe.”

  Nona gave Leo a sheepish smile, to which the black-haired boy shook his head.

  They had been walking down similar streets for the past thirty minutes, but after the girl painstakingly examined every single door, she had confirmed that none of them were her home.

  By now, the sun had set, and the only light were torches spread intermittently throughout the small alley. Leo had to squint as he looked at one of the doors for any sign of Nona’s home, before he pulled himself back after realizing he didn’t know what he was looking for.

  Nevertheless, the girl had been adamant that her house was off of Market Street. She insisted that she went out of her house and onto the ‘street of loud noises and people selling things,’ so there was realistically only one place that could be. But she hadn’t remembered which street, and Leo had resigned himself to looking through each and every one.

  “I forgot to ask you, how do you know which one is your place?”

  Leo asked Nona, who had been hopping from door-to-door in a frenzied pace. She stopped squinting at one of the doors and turned to Leo.

  “Me and my sister wrapped one of our memories from our village around the doorknob. It’s like a glowy string. It’s like… this long?”

  She pinched her fingers together and extended them to a length slightly wider than her body. It seemed to be thin and wiry. She continued to explain.

  “We use… used to use them for light in the village when it was dark. You’d tap on it and… boom! The whole area around you would light up. You could see lots of glowy people at night.”

  She smiled wistfully and wiped at her eyes. Leo smiled at her enthusiasm.

  “That’s cool. Have you went back to visit recently?”

  At Leo’s question, the girl’s eyes widened. She bit her lip, and her voice wavered as she responded.

  “No… we can’t go back. There’s nothing left.”

  She looked down towards the ground, and Leo’s smile faded. There was a brief pause as he tried to think of what to say, and when he finally spoke, it was a jumble of words.

  “I’m sorry. My… I had… I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  He stammered out his words, and Nona looked up at his expression. Her eyes were quiet and sad. But she spoke.

  “It’s okay. It was a good home. Full of lots of fun people! My big memory is when I used to run around and bother the farmers while they were working, and they would sometimes give me a whole watermelon to take home.”

  Leo paused, and then tried to smile again.

  “Sounds like a great place to grow up.”

  Nona wiped her tears from her eyes, but she looked at him with a wistful expression.

  “It was! We had Blacksmith Rom too, and he would always hoist me onto his shoulders whenever I got the chance. I felt like a giant!”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah! And the carriages…”

  Her eyes brightened, and she started to beam as she recounted more memories from the village. Leo continued to smile and ask her questions, but her good memories couldn’t last forever.

  “So me and my sister went to go get another apple after the raven had stolen it, and we got another one from the tree! Then we went back to the village, and…”

  Her expression dropped, and she began to sob. Leo faltered, and he sat next to her on the stairs of one of the doorways.

  “You don’t have to talk about it.”

  Nona wiped her eyes and looked across from her. At a doorway with a tree engraved on it.

  “I don’t remember much. Just lots of fire. Then my sister turned me away and we ran for a long time.”

  “I see.”

  Leo nodded and looked down at the ground. When he looked up, he saw Nona staring at him with an understanding expression in her eyes.

  “It happened to you too, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How long ago?”

  “A month. You?”

  “Two years.”

  Leo and Nona sat on the stairs to one of the doors for a long while. One transmigrator from Earth, and one seven-year-old girl. Both had lost their homes. It had been a couple of minutes of silence when Leo spoke.

  “Are you better now?”

  Nona paused, thinking. When she responded to Leo, she had the expression of someone who had been through way too much at a young age.

  “Not better. But I think about it less. And whenever I think about it, I try to remember my sister’s words.”

  “What were they?”

  “Remember the good times. Move forward. And do your best.”

  Nona smiled, and Leo laughed softly.

  “Good words to live by.”

  Nona and Leo continued to look at the doorknobs, and they found her doorway at the end of the alley. It was a simple door, with no engravings or the like on it, but it had a white, glowing band wrapped around the doorknob. Nona’s reaction was all he needed.

  “This is it! This is it! I’m finally home!”

  She pumped her fist in the air. The girl’s mood had turned around after her talk with Leo, and she had been chattering happily as they looked at the doors. He could tell she was trying to make him feel better, and while he did have some reservations about being emotionally reassured by a seven-year-old girl, he appreciated the gesture.

  Leo smiled.

  “Awesome. You able to get inside?”

  “Mm. I don’t know if my sister is home, but I have a key!”

  She rustled around in one of the pockets of her skirt and brandished a key. It was silver, albeit rusted around the handle, and she held it in the air as she looked at Leo.

  “I would invite you inside, but my sister says to not invite strangers into the home. Especially at night.”

  Leo laughed.

  “Yeah… that’s probably a good rule. Do you want me to wait out here for your sister if you’re the only one there?”

  Nona shook her head.

  “It’s okay. I’ll lock the door, and my sister specifically chose this street because it’s very safe!”

  “Then I’ll take her word for it.”

  Leo smiled and waved Nona goodbye as she went inside of her house. After listening for the lock, he began to walk down the street and towards the large academy out in the distance.

  It had been a long day. Leo’s feet ached, and his eyes drooped as he stumbled back towards the dorms. He could call it a day and be fulfilled. He had learned how to practice with the sword and even paid a kind act forward. It was, by all accounts, the best day he’d had in Floracia so far.

  But he still had one thing left to do.

  Leo knocked on the large door in front of him. He held two pieces of paper — one a hastily written note by a general, and another a crumpled will shoved in the bottom of his bag. His hands shook as he finished knocking on the door.

  He heard a rustling inside, and footsteps began to approach the door. It opened, and standing in front of him was a girl with straight brown hair and blue eyes. She gave Leo a confused expression.

  “Hi… uh, who are you?”

  Leo looked down at the ground, then looked up again. He smiled, and looked her in the eyes.

  “Hi. I’m Leo Caldera. Are you Veronica Trugo?”

  The girl’s eyes widened, and she looked at Leo suspiciously.

  “Yeah… how did you know that?”

  Leo looked down in his hands and slowly straightened out the crumpled piece of paper. He held it in front of Veronica.

  “I’m the last surviving resident of Korok Village. I have your father’s will, and General Vezifon told me it would be best if we read it together. Would now be a good time?”

  Veronica stared at him, dumbfounded.

  Then she nodded. And Leo smiled.

  “Alright. I’m coming in, then.”

  Leo took his first step forward into the room.

  **