Solitude

I raised my head and looked around. People were still flowing into the funeral hall.

Ah, it’s that day again.

I stood inside, silently holding a bouquet of flowers. For whose funeral? My father’s, of course.

I could feel their glances of pity on my back, hear them whispering about me.

“It’s that girl.”

“Poor her.”

“Where’s her mother?”

“She’s been holed up in her room for days now…”

“Damn…. I feel bad for her daughter.”

“Hey! She can hear you!”

Or maybe that’s just my imagination. It’s hard not to imagine me getting pitied, given how I’m alone at my own father’s funeral.

I lowered my head back down and closed my eyes. I just want to forget it all. Just head home and see that my father was still there, standing by my mother. That a mythical healer came along and brought him back. 

That this was actually a dream and not a recollection.

No one decided to approach me that day, probably to give me some breathing room.

My friends began keeping their distance over the next few weeks as well, maybe out of care, maybe it’s because they don’t want to come off as overly sympathetic, but eventually that distance grew to a point where it was too awkward to talk to each other.

Even years after the funeral, wherever I went, I still felt those pitiful gazes on my back. That’s definitely my imagination but it’s one I can’t shake off.

------------------------------

I woke up. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had that dream. Maybe it’s because I left my hometown that my mind wanted to remind me of it.

I checked the magic clock: 6:00.

Old habits die hard, huh. Even after I’ve left, I still wake up at the exact same time every day.

I laid back down on my bed, even though I know I can’t fall back asleep.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve actually made it to Eden.

I’m finally away from home.

I’m finally free.

I can finally start anew, in a new home. Make myself comfortable

Maybe I’ll even be able to make a friend, have someone to eat lunch with.

I finally… don’t have to be alone…..

So why…..

Why am I crying?

Even at home I never cried. Even as I sat at the table alone eating the bread I brought home from work.

Even as I walked through that crowd during my father’s funeral, not a tear came out.

So why now?

It’s as if they’ve all been welled up this whole time to come out for this moment, and that dream was what opened the gates.

“Hey, um.... You good?”

Oh. I forgot I have a talking sword now. I wiped my tears away.

“You wake up this early too?”

“I’d be more concerned over your tears than my sleep schedule if I were you.”

“Do swords even sleep?”

“Don’t change the subject.”

Oh, so he can be serious, huh. I sighed and gave in.

“Yeah, sorry. Just feeling a bit emotional taking in how I’m finally in Eden.”

Well, that’s half true.

“....... alright then.”

He sounds as if he was about to object but he chose not to.

No use lying on the bed this whole time. I took out my course schedule and decided to scout out the area before heading to breakfast.

I got changed and passed a belt around my waist. I then put the sheathed sword into a holster on the left side of the belt.

“Oh! You’re taking me with you!”

Someone’s excited, what happened to all that seriousness from earlier?

“Well, I needed someone to lead the way.”

“So I'm just a map!?”

"Pretty much."

"Can't you at least pretend that I'm not!?"

"Wouldn't that just hurt you more when you find out the truth?"

"Fine, fair point!"

And with that out of the way, time to head off.

------------------------------

“So the order’s swordsmanship, into magic, into variety class and finally archery for those of room 151 to 200.”

“Huh, they didn’t have variety classes back then. Guess soldiers just didn’t need education beyond how to fight.”

“Guess not.”

“Strange that they made you take all three though. It was just pick one and that’s the only class you’ll get back then.”

“Now that the war is over, they don’t need to rush things as much, so I suppose they wanted students to explore their options.”

Finding the classrooms I was assigned wasn’t hard given how I have a navigator with me.

I’m surprised to see that I wasn’t the only one up this early. There were quite a few people jogging in the fields, some even in uniform.

For now, the bell for the cafeteria hasn’t rung yet so I might as well walk around a bit more before heading to the cafeteria.

“So how was school back then?”

I asked Al.

“Well, as the true big daddy to all I-”

“If you use the words "big daddy" ever again, I'm returning you to the blacksmith for a new one. Just answer the question.”

“Fine…”

He sighed and continued.

“It was tough to say the least. They worked us to the bone to get us to the strength needed for a soldier. A lot of us have passed out due to exhaustion at least once early on. And you already know about the food, which somehow managed to get even worse after I made it into the army. And the people….”

He said bitterly.

“Well, I'm getting ahead of myself here! Besides, I got used to it, so it's fine! And that's years ago, they’ve probably changed a lot by now!”

‘The people from back then’ is a topic I should probably avoid, I think. Or at least one he clearly doesn’t want to talk about. Or maybe it's the past in general. He didn’t ask any further about why I was crying so I won’t dig further about him either.

And besides, if we’re going to be stuck here for the entire school year, I’ll have plenty of chances to ask him again anyways.

“Sure sure.”

I said as we turned the corner to see the dorms I’m staying in.

He doesn’t sound like he has much information that isn’t going to be outdated now that I think about it. Still, it's worth a shot.

“You took swordsmanship, right?”

“Why else would I be here as a sword?”

“Fair enough. Any tips?”

“Hmm… not much I could give, since they only taught us how to fight monsters while you’ll be taught how to fight humans most likely. And whatever general information they did give me would probably be passed down to you in class. The only thing I can warn you of is to focus on everything but the blade. The instructor would sock me in the gut when we were doing one on one sparring, but I’m not sure if he’ll do the same to you.”

I guess it’s better than nothing.

The bell rang, which means the cafeteria’s open and everyone who was asleep should be waking up now.

I headed into the cafeteria and grabbed a tray.

“Ah, it's been so long since I’ve been here. This place's the same hellhole as always, huh.”

“Maybe? I wouldn't know."

I shrugged and headed to the serving area to see what they had to offer.

Seems it’s a lot more self served during the mornings, given how little staff they had onboard.

They had bread and muffins on one table and someone serving scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and pancakes at another. Given how it’s mostly self-served, there wasn't much of a line.

“Any recommendations?”

"Bread sounds great, don't you think?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Wait wait, I was kidding, I was kidding, please don’t!”

“Haha, I wasn’t going to after what happened last night.”

I went to the server and asked for some scrambled eggs, pancakes and bacon.

Aside from the bacon looking burnt everything else looks fairly normal.

I grabbed myself a glass of water and sat down.

I ate the bacon first, given how it's so thin that it'll turn cold if I don't. It was as burnt as it looks but still manageable, so I turned to the pancakes.

“Um…. Is this spot taken?”

Someone suddenly asked.

I looked up.

The question came from a girl with her eyes barely open, still in her pajamas, standing on the other side of the table, with a muffin and some pancakes in her tray along with a glass of juice. She has quite the bedhead, which made her hair puff out like a massive cotton ball. 

“No.”

“Thanks. I didn’t really want to sit alone and you were the only person I recognized.”

She sat down.

“Wait, you’ve met?”

Al asked.

“We’ve met before?”

“Hm? Yeah, last night. You’re Abigail, aren’t you?”

Huh? Wait a minute….

"Heather!?”

Her eyes lit up.

“Yeah! Thank god I got the right person! My head’s not the best in the mornings.”

“Nor is your hair, I see.”

“Ahaha, yeah, you can say that! But still, it would’ve been sooooooooo embarrassing if I got the wrong person.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t mind.”

She took a bite out of her muffin. I also continued eating my pancake.

She just looked so different with how much her hair puffed out.

“Wait, hold on, who is she, and what did she mean last night?”

Al asked, confused.

If you can’t tell, I can’t respond without sounding like a lunatic, you moron.

I raised my left leg to slam my food into the ground but ended up kneeing the table, resulting in a bang a bit louder than I had hoped.

The people around us turned to look at us.

Oops.

Given how other than Heather's bedhead, nothing that interesting was happening over here, so they all gradually resumed what they were doing, one after another.

“Alright, point taken.”

At least Al got the message.

Heather stared at me.

“Whao, what was that?”

“Don’t worry about it. I saw a bug on the floor so I tried to stomp on it, but ended up kneeing the table.”

“Ouch. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

I let out a sigh of relief inside. It’s not like I can’t tell people my sword talks, but telling someone that I can hear things no one else can hear is probably a one way path to social isolation and get me branded as crazy.

“So you don’t like bugs either?”

“I’m fine with them, just that this one was getting on my nerves.”

“How so?”

She tilted her head.

“Uh…. The thing was buzzing too much.”

“Huh, I must’ve been too sleepy to hear it then.”

“I’m guessing you can’t stand them?”

“Nope, can’t even bear the thought of them.”

And so, we just continued eating. She was probably still sleepy and doesn't want to talk much while I didn't really have anything I want to talk about, so we just sat there eating. 

I soon finished my breakfast and left. The silence was a bit awkward but I suppose it’s fine given how we just didn’t want to sit alone.

Well, if the course schedule has anything to say, we’ll probably be seeing each other again when classes start.

I went back to my room and checked the clock: 7:49. There’s still forty minutes or so before class begins, so I’ll just read for a bit.

“So you gonna tell me who that was?”

Oh, I forgot.

“Yeah, that’s Heather. She’s staying in the room next door. We met when I was heading to the showers last night.”

“I see.”

“No further comment?”

“I mean, it hasn’t even been a full day since you two met, so it's not like you know much about her. Given how she immediately recognized you, I thought she was someone from your hometown or something.”

“Fair enough.”

And so, I dove back into my book and waited for classes to start.

Author's notes: Well, releasing this chapter took a lot less stress than the rest. Thank you for reading.