Chapter 4: [4] Reputation(2)
Cassie was looking at Sunny with a strange expression. She had no idea what he was getting at. Her Aspect... powerful? There was a sort of grim truth that lay in his words, but she didn't seem to comprehend it.
What Aspect could be worth the loss of her sight? Didn't he know that she was about to be dropped into the wilderness at random? She was a dead girl walking. Or stumbling. Kind of hard to tell without her sight.
Still, she could tell the the boy she heard was trying to cheer her up, and her cheeks flushed pink. She was actually very happy that someone had treated her like a person and not a ghost.
Sunny quietly chuckled at the side. He had forgotten how cute and childlike this version of Cassie was. He knew it wouldn't last long, but indeed he was happy to see her smile so genuinely. He wished that she could always smile so brightly, but alas, Fate was anything except kind.
"What is your name?"
Sunny froze. That didn't sound like Cassie at all. Wasn't he having a quiet conversation with the girl? Who was behind him, then?
Actually turning, he found Changing Star looming over him. He was dumbstruck. What. The. Spell? He was frozen, and Cassie seemed to realize that something was wrong. She turned and asked, "Mister?"
Sunny finally snapped out of his confusion. Ah, this actually kills two birds with one stone. He turned to glance at Cassie, and then flipped around to face Nephis.
"Well if it isn't miss Changing Star? Ah, my name is Sunless."
He'd ask what the chances she changed the past on her own were, but he knew it was probably his own fault. Sure enough, he was soon proven right.
Nephis walked around the table and sat right beside Cassie. Cassie realized what was happening and was definitely very confused. Luckily, Nephis had deemed it a good time to explain herself.
"What was that at the Academy gate yesterday?"
Sunny knew that Nephis had attracted the attention of all the sleepers in the cafeteria. In fact, Castor was already heading this way.
Thinking on the fly, Sunny quickly spun the truth in a way that suited him.
"Actually, I really wanted to talk to you. I noticed that you didn't have much on you like I didn't, so I thought you might've been having a hard time too. It's just that I couldn't speak up because I felt really awkward about suddenly trying to converse with someone who I'm laying eyes on for this first time."
'In this lifetime.'
Actually, Sunny suddenly felt like he had a stroke of luck. If Nephis hadn't been irked about Sunny following her around like a puppy all of the way here, he wouldn't get to introduce himself and Cassie. He might be able to do it now, though, since she had made her way over to him on some strange whim. Right now though, Sunny had an irritated Changing Star in front of him and Han Li Castor about thirty steps away from him.
Since time was short, Sunny cursed losing his chance to introduce Cassie, but Nephis already had a visitor. It wasn't one that Sunny was fond of, either.
"Hello, Lady Nephis. I am Caster, from the Han Li clan. I see that your trial went well?"
That seemed to distract Nephis from her awkward chatter with Sunny. Sunny wasn't surprised to see Caster had ignored Cassie and himself. He was always the high and mighty type.
Nephis seemed a little perplexed, and quickly tried to brush off his conversation.
"It is what it is."
Caster gave his usual fake smile in return.
"I see. I am very glad that you returned unharmed. Uh... not that I doubted your abilities."
Nephis gave him a blank look and nodded.
"Thank you."
She immediately began to return her attention to the strange boy and the blind girl, and Caster clearly got the hint that the conversation was over. Sunny was amused as he watched Caster walk away.
'Zero for two, buddy.'
This time around, Sunny was determined to make sure Nephis was not as solitary, and that neither was Cassie. Somehow, they would make a friendship even before they were thrown to the forgotten shore together.
'Ah, I could borrow the power of that bas- I mean Kai's charm.'
Sunny moved further down the table and finished his breakfast in peace. He did manage to ask Cassie for her name, though.
***
Sunny had split his classes between Wilderness Survival and Combat training equally this time. He knew he needed to keep up pretenses, but he had to start to prepare for the Forgotten shore. As much as he loved Teacher Julius, he needed to prepare his body for the flexible ways in which he would use it.
Shadow Dance was indeed no easy practice to master. If he was going to accelerate the rate in which he grew and gained skills, he needed to master its basics, and quickly.
Walking around, Sunny quickly found himself standing inside the door of a spacious and familiar classroom. He took one look at the gloomy instructor behind the wide wooden desk and immediately broke out into a wide smile.
Ah, it was time to impress his favorite instructor.
After introducing himself to teacher Julius, he asked about why he was the only person here, and received the same answer as before. His conversation with the elderly teacher had flowed much the same, even his surprise that Jet of all people had recommended him.
He was clearly disappointed that Sunny was taking combat lessons as well, but he quickly got over it.
***
Sunny breezed through his lessons with teacher Julius. Their time together flew past, and eventually, Sunny was dismissed to go to afternoon combat classes.
Unlike before the regression, when Sunny was just watching through his shadow, this time around he was participating in Nephis' class for introduction combat training.
It didn't take long for the sleepers to begin taking turns on the punching machines. After many students began testing, the machine displayed numbers one after another. Ten, Thirteen, fourteen, eleven, there were no students who gained above a sixteen, until eventually only Sunny, Nephis, and Castor were left.
Sunny was not the same kid who threw an awkward, straight punch at that text dummy several years ago. He might have looked the same, but his knowledge and experience were as different as night and day.
He threw his body weight into a proper punch. He could have rattled the machine a bit if he had used his shadow, but he didn't want to stand out that much. Soon, another number was displayed. Eleven. It might have seemed a little weak, but to Caster, Nephis, and instructor Rock, it was anything but.
Sunny was much smaller than he should have been for his age, and his muscles were much weaker. In other words, throwing a punch rated eleven was a terrifying show of skill, precision, and unexpected force.
Every legacy in the room instantly narrowed their eyes, recalculating Sunny's threat level in their head. Most of them assumed that Sunny had used an aspect to push out more force than he should have been capable of, but Caster and Nephis were kicking their murder math into overdrive while looking at him.
Both of the two realized that Sunny's punch was nearly flawless, as if he had honed his skill for years. Of course, that was exactly what Sunny had done, but nobody would know that.
Nephis was up next, with a sixteen base strike. Sunny knew she could punch the machine apart with her flames, but her flaw would be preventing her from doing that, at least for a while.
Caster had that terrifying twenty one when he struck the machine. It was so fast that Sunny couldn't see it, even after he reinforced himself with his shadow secretly. Indeed, Sunny would have to work much harder.
While everyone was gawking at Caster's impressive display of might, instructor Rock spoke up.
"Not bad. Now, we will move to sparring and evaluate your general level of training. I need two volunteers to begin."