On That Day

“Abigail, was it? Your room will be room 153. Here’s the key. Your sword has already been delivered to your room.”

“Thanks.”

I replied and took the key from the woman at the front desk.

After a two day trip by carriage, here I am, finally at Eden, looking for my room…. 148, 151, 153….

I went in to find a simple small room with a small bed, cabinet, desk and chair. On the desk was a rectangular box with a ribbon on it, probably where they put the sword.

Well, might as well check it out. I should at least try holding it if I’m going to a knight. I set aside my luggage and opened the box. Sure enough, there was a sheathed sword.

I unsheathed it and was going to give it a few test swings when I heard something.

“Ah, I can finally see now!”

Huh? Who was that?

“Yeah, hello! Well, it’s not like you can hear me but if you can, look over here!”

The voice was that of a male’s, probably someone in his early 20s. He has a carefree and somewhat playful attitude.

“Um, what do you mean ‘here’?”

“Wait, you can actually hear me?”

“Yes?”

“Thank god! Finally I have someone to talk to.”

“And who are you exactly?”
I looked around the room, searching for where that voice was coming from.

“In your hands!”

Huh? But the only thing in my hands is the sword…

I checked outside my room and window. Someone’s probably playing a prank on me. Who knows what people can get up to with magic these days.

“Hello? Hellooooooo? Yeah, I’m the sword in your hand, don’t you have something to say about that?”

……….. Whatever, if it’s a prank, I’ll let them have their fun and be done with me already.

“Yeah yeah, what do you want?”

“Hm.........”

The voice paused as if thinking about something.

“You know, I didn’t really think about what to say after the greeting.”

“Huh? Then why bother?”

“Hey, you have any idea how lonely it gets when you’ve had a hood over your eyes for three days with no one to talk to? Being a sword’s hard dammit.”

“Sure it is. Now can you quit this prank?”

The voice paused, confused.

“A prank?”

“Yes?”

“This isn’t one though.”

“It’s not funny anymore.”

“I’m being serious.”
Wait, he’s serious?

I immediately put the sword back in the box and closed it shut.

“Hey!”

I ran out of the room, shut the door behind me and pushed my back against it.

Alright alright alright, calm down. Figure out what’s going on.

So I went into my room, was going to test out the sword they gave me, and apparently the sword started talking. They probably don’t hand out talking swords no matter how prestigious this place is, so did nobody hear it talk? It could have stayed silent, but then why would it choose to talk only to me? Then again, it asked me if I could hear it, so does that mean nobody else is able to? That’s probably the most likely case, so then what makes me so special? Thinking here wouldn't do anything. It could still be a prank but whatever the case, I should try talking to it.

I went back in and took the sword out.

“What was that for!?”

“Sorry, I needed to clear my mind a bit and figure out what’s going on.”

“Is it that difficult to understand that your sword can talk?”

Good god he’s annoying. I tried to reply as calmly as I could.

“Given how surreal it is, yes. Anyways, um, why can you talk?”

“No idea. Only woke up a few days ago. Spent the time before that dying.”

“Dying?”

“Yup, was on the battlefield and took a fireball to the arm. Then got shot by an arrow straight through the skull.”

“Sounds… painful.”

“Of course it was, did you expect anything else? Any more questions?”

“Why are you here?”

“Don’t know. When I woke up, I was in a shed with a bunch of other swords. I tried calling out to people and none of them would respond, until you came along at least. Well, enough about that, who are you?”

Wait, but I only got to ask two questions.

“Abigail Lawson, I moved to the dorms at Eden’s Boarding School just now.”

“Ah, that makes me your senior here then.”

“You studied here before?”

“Yup, my family had to save quite a bit…. They wanted the best training I could get, so that I could stay alive out there.”

His tone turned sour. Yeah, this probably isn’t a prank. If it was, it would be far too unnecessarily elaborate.

“Well, anyways, I graduated, joined the army, and the rest is obvious. Went to war, died, somehow ended up as a sword. We’re supposed to be talking about you here. So, you aiming to be a knight?”

Ah, he’s back to being happy go-lucky.

“I guess. Though, it’s more like I just wanted to get away from my family.”

“Why here? Surely there are cheaper boarding schools than this one.”

“Well yeah, but this method also sends me to the military, which secures me a job.”

“Don’t all schools do that?”

“No? Eden’s one of the cheapest ones out there.”

“Huh?”

Ah, there's probably a gap in his memory if he died on the battlefield. The most recent major war was quite a few years ago, against the monsters.

"They dropped the policy after our victory in the holy war."

“We won!?”

He sounded surprised and also kind of happy.

“Yeah. not exactly sure what happened but that’s all I know. Because we don’t have as big a need for soldiers, they dropped the policy for all but the really good schools.”

The contents of the policy in question are that graduates from government approved schools are immediately offered to join the military. The war against monsters made way for a demand for soldiers, which resulted in the government approving of basically every school. Now with that the war has ended, the demand for soldiers is gone as well, so the government revoked its approval for most of the lower class schools.

“Huh. So you just came here on your own?”

“Yeah, my mom couldn’t care to send me off.”

Well, rather than couldn’t care to, she just really doesn’t want to. My father had died due to an illness years ago. Ever since she couldn’t even bear to look at me because I reminded her of him. Things didn’t look like they were going to improve as time went on so I started taking jobs and saving up until I could afford to move out.

My thought process back then was Fine, you don’t want to see me? There, I’ve disappeared. I’m gone from your life. You happy now?

“Well, whatever the case, welcome to Eden! Should be dinner time right about now….”

And right as he said that, a bell rang, signaling that the cafeteria has opened.

Guess I’ll have to take the luggage out after dinner.

I stood up, put the sword on the drawer and started walking to the door.

“Time to go, I guess.”

“Hey! You’re not taking me with you!?”

“Of course not, who brings a sword to dinner?”

“You’ll be fine! C’mon, take me with you! I haven’t seen the outside in so long!”

“No way.”

“Ugh, fine…..”

With one last look at the drawer, I headed for dinner.

Before I exited the room, the sword called out:

“Oh yeah, before you go, I gotta warn you, the food in the cafeteria ain’t that good.”

Well that certainly isn’t good news. Whatever the case, I can probably handle it. And at least I don’t have to eat at home again.

After checking the map at the front of the dorm, I managed to find the cafeteria.

It was a big building a few minutes away from the dorms. The place was separated into two areas, the service area and the eating area. The service area is directly connected to the kitchen and is where they had tables set out with food and servers along with a big board with the menu written on it. While the eating area is lined up with benches and a table that held the utensils.

There were already quite a few people lining up at the serving area already.

I checked the menu; it seems today’s special is going to be pork chops. Well, it can’t be that bad. After all, if that sword’s knowledge is from years ago, maybe the quality of the food has improved.

And Eden was a very high classed school in the past, only to have its level brought down by government policies to make schools more affordable during the war, so maybe they still retained some of their culinary skills. Then again, unlike a lot of similar schools that had to downgrade, Eden didn’t go back to its prestigious ways after the policy was more or less lifted, so maybe they’ve been cutting costs?

I grabbed a tray from one of the tables in the serving area and joined the line. As more people flooded in, a lot of them saw their friends and acquaintances already in line and budged in. What looked like a five minute line suddenly turned to twenty minutes. They probably had those friends get here early to save them a spot in line.

I sighed, annoyed as my turn to be served finally arrives.

“I’ll have the pork chops please.”

“Here you go.”

The server handed me a plate containing the porkchop, two slices of bread on the side, a salad in a bowl, and a cupcake with icing for dessert.

Are pork chops supposed to be this pale?

Aside from the strange paleness of the porkchops, everything else seemed fine, given how you don’t really need to prepare the dish to serve bread or salad. And whatever features the cupcake has is covered in icing.

Regardless, I grabbed a cup of water and sat down. When I went in, there were relatively few people sitting down. But by now, there were barely any spots left. The second and third years have already crowded most of the tables with their friends, with loners like me sticking off to the sides, most of us being first years.

I found a spot and sat down. I cut a piece of the chops and put it in my mouth. I mean, how bad could it be? Pork chops are just cooked pork...

……………………………………………………….

Well, that was about one of the worst things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

I immediately grabbed a sip of water.

Good god why is it so dry? They didn’t even put salt on it. In fact, they didn’t put any form of seasoning or sauce on it at all. And it was so tough… like I’m trying to chew through jerky.

I found a salt shaker at my table and used it to at least give the meat some flavour.

Not much else I could do with it I guess, so I bore with it and chowed it down.

I gave the bread a slight taste, in fear that it would be equally as bad, but thankfully they were fine, albeit a bit dry. So I started eating the bread until I noticed a faint sour taste to it. Well, maybe it was made with sourdough or something. Though I’ve never had that before so I wouldn’t be able to tell. The bakery I worked at back at my home town had mentioned something about figuring out a recipe for it one day but I never got to try it.

The salad was fine, it was just dressing and vegetables after all.

And finally onto dessert. I readied my water and took a small bite out of the cupcake.

It was surprisingly good, to be honest. Given everything else that this place had to offer, at least this one isn’t nearly as bad.

Well, now that the sword isn’t here, I have some more time to think. The obvious thing to do is for him to teach me, considering he's a graduate. But I probably won’t be able to get much out of him given how being a graduate doesn’t mean you can teach a subject. Not to mention, even if he’s a sword, he might have graduated through a different department, like magic or archery. Well, even if he can’t teach me, at least I’ll always have someone to talk to, even if he’s a bit strange. I’ll just keep rolling with it for now and see how it turns out.

I put my tray on a counter for them to dispose of and as I passed by the garbage, I noticed an entire pile of bread that’s been barely eaten in there. I have a bad feeling about this.

I looked at the crowd. Barely anyone has touched the bread, and those who have are either the loners or are throwing them away.

Oh no.

I should probably have asked the sword what food to stay away from.

I rushed back to my room.

“Ah, you’re back! How was the cafeteria?”

I ignored his question. He already knows that most of the stuff there is crap.

“Quick question, is there something wrong with the bread?”

“Oh that?”

His voice turned giddy. He’s clearly enjoying this.

“Yeah, it’s stale. What about it?”

“Stale? What does that mean?”

“Wait, don’t tell me…. You actually ate that?”

He asked in disbelief.

“Yes?”

“Did you not notice how sour it was?”

“I thought it was sourdough….”

He sighed.

“Stale bread means that it’s not fresh and has been left out for god knows how long. Everyone unanimously agreed to stay away from it back then. Do they seriously still serve that garbage?”

“Apparently so.”

“Damn…”

“Um, so what’s going to happen to me now that I ate it?”

“Well, you’ll probably get a bad case of the runs, so have fun with that.”

Ugh, I could feel my stomach in pain already. Might as well start setting up my luggage while I wait for the inevitable, though most of it’s just clothes and books along with necessities for everyday life and school.

Sure enough, I had to go use the washroom and ended up stuck in there for over half an hour.

When I got back, I asked

“Hey, I forgot to ask this earlier but what’s your name?”

“Ah, that would be the great Albert Greathorn, known across the nation as the big daddy meat lord.”

He said all dramatically.

“.....I’ll just go with Al.”

“Hey, at least call me by my full name!”

“Not after that disgusting title you gave yourself.”

“You’re supposed to treat your elders with respect aren’t you!?”

“You can’t expect me to treat you with respect when you just called yourself ‘big daddy meat lord’.”

“Fine, I guess just ‘lord’ works too.”

Seriously, is he actually older than me?

“Ugh, just leave me alone.”

I groan and pick up a book to read. Al finally decided to leave me alone, I guess he’s content with finally having someone he can talk to after so long.

The rest of the night went by without much event. I considered greeting my neighbours but that would be too weird. And what would I even say in the first place? I could just wait until an opportunity presents itself.

I could try and talk to Al but it’s not like we have anything to talk about. He didn’t seem too happy when his past got brought up so it’s best not to bring that up. I wouldn’t be too keen on revealing everything about myself to someone I just met a few hours ago either.

And so, I put some clothes and a towel in a pail along with a toothbrush, toothpaste and a cup and headed to the public showers. It’s not that late yet but I want to get up early just in case something comes up. I don’t have to fight for the showers later as well.

Despite how early I was, there was already another girl there.

The girl has long blond hair with bright blue eyes. She was also a bit shorter than me and was smiling for some reason. Her hair being wet and the towel around her neck suggests that she just got out of the shower. She noticed me and waved.

“Hi!”

“Hello.”

“You taking a shower early as well?”

She spoke in a friendly upbeat manner.

“Yeah, I’m worried that the stalls will be full if I shower later.”

“Ah, I get that. But this is one of the few places where you get to meet people from other classes!”

“I wouldn’t really call the showers my preferred spot to meet people…”

“Eh, might as well take every chance you get, you know? Anyways, what’s your name?”

“Abigail Lawson, first year, room 153. And you?”

“Heather Granner, first year, room 152.”

“That makes us neighbours then.”

“Yup! Feel free to come to me if you need anything.”

Well that’s quite the coincidence, but at least I got to meet her.

“So what were you smiling at when I came in?”

“Oh, I was just getting hyped for tomorrow.”

“Really? I’m more nervous than anything. I have no idea how difficult classes will get.”

“Well yeah, there’s that, but surely it can’t be that hard. And besides, the first day of school isn’t only about classes. It’s when you make your first impression, explore the school, make friends!”

“That’s assuming I’m interested in doing that.”

“You aren’t?”

“Not in particular. Maybe I’ll make a friend or two but that’s about it.”

“To each their own, I guess.”

We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I then took my shower and went back to my room.

I took a bit more time to read before turning off the magic lamp and going to sleep.

“Good night.”

“Oh, so now you want to talk, huh?”

“Shut up.”

“Ahaha sorry. Good night to you too.”

Author's note: Hello! This is Royal Nobody speaking, thank you for reading through chapter 1! This chapter alone has been the cause of my stress for the past like, three weeks constantly revising and writing it. In the end, I just decided to say screw it and get it over with already. I'll try to upload weekly but I dunno if I can handle that. Either way, I thank you so very much for reading, even if it's just one person who'll stick with me.  Maybe what I wrote was garbage, maybe not, but I hope you had fun. Thank you.