Chapter 6:

6. Relaxing Day

Insomniac Month


Wednesday, October 3 2007

-Morning

Mr. Cohen: ‘Tell me, Eric… In what year Santa Maria del Fiore was opened?’

Eric: ‘1436, sir!’

Mr. Cohen: ‘Very Impressive! You guys should follow his example!’

Applause filled the room as I sat down. Getting a correct answer in his class is considered an achievement.

I glanced towards Sana, who looked at me with a weak smile.

It seems our adventure proved useful in real life.

Today Me and Fredrick invited Sana to eat at a cafetaria. She’s a bit reluctant at first, but after some convincing, she agreed, if we sat at less crowded tables.

This is the first time the cafetaria offers pre packaged meals instead of cooking hot meals right away.

The taste is… Well, left to be desired… We still ate them up, except…

Eric: ‘What’s wrong, Sana? You don’t like it?’

There’s still food in her food, but I noticed that she kept having a worried face…

Sana: ‘U… Um, it’s not that, but… They’re here.’

When I looked to the right, two gal-like girl students with excessive makeup looked at us with disgust.

Girl A: ‘Look what we have here, a lame girl sitting with two boys.’

Girl B: ‘Uwah, and not only that, but the most handsome boy at the football club kneels before you?? What a slut… You must’ve so desperate to offer your body-’

Fredrick spits her drink.

Fredrick: ‘Oi! I didn’t do that kind of thing!!’

Girl A: ‘Ahaha! What a liar! There’s no way a quiet girl can get two boys at the same time!’

Girl B: ‘Her body speaks for itself~’

Their tone pisses me off.

I immediately stood up.

Eric: ‘You two, enough of this! Take back the words! Don’t you see? She’s suffered enough!’

Girl A: ‘Ah… You don’t know her much, yet. She’s the hidden shut, that’s because she did-’

Sana: ‘STOP IT!!’

Her scream causes the entire people here to stare at us.

Sana: ‘Stop it… Stop… Please.’

Girl A: ‘So, you don’t want to admit it? Ah~ How lame!’

Eric: ‘Are you freaking deaf?? She told you to stop!’

As we kept arguing, the nearby students started gossiping against us.

I hold Sana’s hand… I want to escape…

Just before I stepped over the chair, I heard a familiar call behind those girls.

???: ‘You two. Don’t you think it’s rude to disturb people eating?’

Girl A: ‘E-Elisabeth!?’

Elisabeth puts her food tray on our table.

Girl B: ‘Ah! Impossible! You can’t sit with this lame girl!! Think of your public image!’

Elisabeth: ‘Lame? I think a girl who slander another girl in public is lame~’

Girl A: ‘But-’

Elisabeth: ‘Aah~ Look guys, these two lame girls tried to disturb my breakfast~’ Cooly replies back with a louder voice.

Sure enough, the surrounding boys stare at those two girls, who shook her heads in confusion.

Girl: ‘Eeek! Not like this!’

The two girls then ran away!

The power of a model is not to be underestimated!

Sana: ‘T-Thank you Elisabeth…’

Elisabeth: ‘Don’t worry about it.’ She replies with a smile.

Fredrick: ‘I have to thank you too, Elize!’

As soon as the boys heard that, the cafetaria riots!

Boy A: ‘Damn you Fredrick! How the hell do you know her sacred nickname??’

Boy B: ‘Unforgivable!’

The girl's sure is gone, but now we have to deal with the loyal Elisabeth supporters!

Eric: ‘Fredrick, we gotta run!’

Elisabeth: ‘ *sigh* Next time, we should’ve eaten somewhere private.’

We were chased by the angry boys until the break was over…

-Afternoon

Today, I decided to bring Sana to a board games club.

The student council actually borrows the room to us every Wednesday and Saturday, if they happen to have no meetings.

Inside, Claudia and Jason are already here.

Eric: ‘Hey guys. I’d like to introduce Sana to board games club. She likes video games!’

Sana: ‘N-Nice to meet you.’

Sana’s still shy in school life, so it might be a good idea if she’s able to socialize with more people. Since we’re pretty much play games here, Sana should be able to get along…

Jason: ‘Oooh! A new member! Welcome! Welcome! I’m starting to get bored with Claudia here.’

Claudia: ‘You’re annoying… Stupid bald.’

They both like to banter with each other…

Sana: ‘This is where you guys play… Board games?’

Jason: ‘Yeah. I’d reckon you haven’t joined a club yet?’

Sana nodded.

Claudia: ‘Then I think this is a perfect place for you. It’s important that you are registered for extracurricular activities on your school evaluation report, otherwise the unis won’t consider you well, even if your grades are good.’

Sana: ‘But I’m not good at board games...’

Jason: ‘What are you talking about? Ha! Eric, bring ‘that’ game over here!’

Ah yes, the board game used to introduce new students or to convince people that anyone can be good at games…

Sana: ‘...Monopoly?’

Claudia: ‘Yeah. Let’s play!’

Monopoly might seem complicated because money’s complicated, but honestly once you have money, it’s actually very simple. You buy land, you build houses, you trick other players to land at your land, and you get rich. Simple as that.

There's a saying that a rich man’s fortune comes from three poor men's sweat. Unfortunately, Sana’s one of those poor guys.

Sana started off with a strong lead by owning expensive property sets and built a couple of houses there.

However, later on, due to lack of trade initiatives, she’s unable to compete for other potential sets. Bad dice luck gradually drained her capital, until she had to mortgage all of her lands. Finally, in just 30 minutes, she nailed her coffin when she landed on TAX tile.

Sana: ‘Noooo… Even though we started with the same dice and money… How could I lose this fast?’

Eric: ‘Listen. This game is about strategy. You must see the big picture. If you only hope for the opponent to land on your few properties, you won’t get very far!’

Claudia: ‘This can also apply to life too. It’s important to have multiple skills rather than depending on just one. By doing that, you’ll have more options!’

Even though she lost badly, she seems to be having a lot of fun. She screams in joy whenever one of us lands on one of her properties.

Seeing her satisfied, I offer her a fist bump.

Eric: ‘So, do you want to join us?’

She replied with fist bump.

With that, we celebrate our 4th member of the board games club.

-Evening

When I went back home, my Lil Sis hurriedly dragged my hand to the dining room. My mom watches the TV anxiously.

The TV shows… Breaking news segment!

(A fire has broken out at the southern Fuko suburban house! Firefighters managed to rescue the owner!)

(‘That’s correct… The victim is unconscious.’)

That’s my dad in the interview!

(Fire likely caused by a malfunctioning stove gas…)

Be safe, Dad.

I watched TV until late night. Thank God the fire’s extinguished. We also called our Dad to confirm his safety…

The fire’s located not far from our school.

I wonder why the owner’s unconscious in the burning house… Is it a health problem or maybe they got locked in?

I’m not sure…

I washed my teeth, then went to sleep.

Sweet dreams, Eric.

***

Welcome to the Dreamfield.

Today, we decided to explore Howald a little more. This is part of our plan to uncover ways of this world’s economic secret… And who knows the world more than the people that live in Royal Castle, the main hub of Dream Lord servants in Howald.

The building seems to be inspired by Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Germany. The interior’s gorgeous, with blue carpets, and intricate marble wall carvings.

The castle is divided into several parts, including a barracks, dining room, a large office, and finally the majestic Lord hall, where we can find Lecias, the Guardian of Light. With a giant marble body, a crown, and three pairs of wings, sitting on the throne like a statue, the Guardian tells us the story…

***

Long time ago, the Two Makers created a world where light and dark are separated by a magical wall, splitting them like a coin with two sides.

The light world is called Dreamfield, ruled by Dream Lord, where animals and man live in harmony, under the light.

The dark world is called Schevol, a lawless world where demons fight each other, driven mad by darkness.

The Two Makers split half of their souls to create the guardians, Lecias and Luno, whose task is to rule the land, and maintain the magical wall that separates the world.

One day, envious of the development of Dreamfield, Luno created an ultimate magic using their souls to penetrate the magical wall, and destroy Dreamfield. However, the magic is incomplete, and only shatters a small piece of the wall.

But that is more than enough for agents of darkness to invade Dreamfield.

These agents are adept at using dark magic, known as FELL ARTS. The most powerful of those magic are sleeping curse.

One by one, the men of Dreamfield begin to sleep. For each one of them sleeps, the darkness seeps more from the hole, gradually turning the world into dark night.

Seeing the problem, Lecias created an ultimate magic using their souls to seal the magical wall, preventing any more demons from invading. However, the magic is incomplete, and it did not affect the agents already in Dreamfield.

Using the last of their strength, Lecias rewrite Luno’s incomplete magic, to create a portal to summon eight heroes from another dimension to defeat remaining demons, and restore the light.

However, Dreamfield is not entirely free. The darkness clawed deep to men’s heart, causing some of them to rebel. The people that rebelled against the Dream Lord are called the Pirates. It is also said that some of the agents reside deep somewhere hidden… Performing dangerous acts to reignite the invasion event.

***

For the next few hours, we completed some faction tasks to improve our favorability with Dream Lord.

Although the Guardian tells us much, their stories would be useless without concrete clues.

Fortunately, the tasks are not ‘dangerous’... It’s just tedious. We have to clean this castle (including the ceilings) and we have to stamp numerous papers in the office.

During the cleaning, Elize found a ticket while cleaning a jar.

When we stamp the papers, Fred noticed that the contents are mostly about town management, and tax.

Speaking of tax, since we’re in a guild, we have to pay more money… Added to being in faction, which costs us more than a thousand now, and it’s bound to go up even more.

But that’s nothing to worry about. Being on a guild apparently makes money management much easier.

Basically any guild member can buy anything they like, as long as the leader verifies it.

Who would be the better guild leader other than Sana?

***

At the outdoor cafe, we took a rest from these laborious tasks.

Fred: ‘Aaaahh! I’m done with stamping!’

We didn’t fight anything today… Well, we thought that we ought to have some rest time too for example… Studying.

Eric: ‘How’s your grade, Fred?’

Fred: ‘Uh, not that great… I’m suck at memorizing formulas…’

Elize: ‘Why don’t we use this place for studying?’

Fred: ‘Come again?’

Elize: ‘You never thought of this at all? We have basically given more time to do our activities!’

Eric: ‘You’re right… We could invite other students to talk here, and make study groups!’

Fred: ‘Wow! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it this way! That also means I can have my parents here too-’

Sana: ‘I can’t agree with the last part… It would be bad if our parents found out we’re playing here.’

Eric: ‘What should we do then? I mean, is there a way to invite students here without having adults here too?’

Fred: ‘Oh! I know! I can draw posters! My parents work in marketing, so they can tell me tricks to entice certain people!’

Sana: ‘How are we discussing those things tomorrow? I don’t like the cafetaria…’

Elize: ‘Barely no one uses the rooftops. We could gather there! I’ll bring bento too for celebration!’

Fred: ‘A bento made by Lady Elize?? That’s super!!’

With that, we begin our special operation.

My watch beeps, and I bid goodbye to everyone

The world around me blurs away quickly before showing me my bedroom.

It’s 6 o’clock…

I decided to prepare for school.

Insomniac Month (Cover)

Insomniac Month


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