104 - To My Past Self, To My Future Self
“Remember.”
“Recall.”
“Don’t forget.”
“Adella?”
“Nya?”
The voice pierced through her reverie, turning Adella’s head.
“You okay?”
“Ah... uh... yeah. I’m fine.”
“Your hand... it’s bleeding.”
NoName pointed out that she wasn’t gripping the dagger’s handle—she was clutching the blade itself. Only then did Adella feel the sharp pain in her palm. She flinched and dropped the dagger with a clatter.
“Wanna take a break if you’re feeling rough?”
“No. We don’t have time. We gotta head straight to the academy.”
“We’ve still got a while before the signal from headquarters. We need to shake our tail anyway, so we should hole up somewhere.”
Bodies littered the ground everywhere. Most were in gruesome states at a glance, thanks to Adella ripping into their guts with her curved sword. The World of Arceria AI’s auto-mosaic feature kept NoName’s stream from getting banned, but it couldn’t mask the brutal stench wafting from beyond.
It was when they’d crossed the northern forest per NoName’s suggestion and reached the narrow alleys of the holy city.
“The sky looks pretty today.”
She’d said it gazing at the jewels densely studded across black silk unfurling between the packed buildings. Adella always made a habit of looking up at the sky while walking these back alleys. Partly because the stench creeping up from the ground was unbearable, but mostly because she couldn’t accept being stuck in a dump like this.
What started as a petty escape from reality had become her hobby before she knew it.
“Forest Keeper, oh Forest Keeper.”
“What?”
“Do you know how to boost your self-esteem, nyang?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Nami mulled it over for a long moment.
“There’s an easy way and a hard way.”
“What’s the easy way?”
“Just live looking only at people worse off than you.”
No real wins in life meant no blows to the ego. Clear, but it left a sour taste.
“Then the hard way?”
“Work to outshine the ones who are already great.”
“Figured as much, nyang.”
Deflated by the perfect question-perfect answer, Adella tried to flop onto the ground but cracked her head on a jutting stone. She grumbled irritably.
“Ow, why’s there a rock here! Sigh... You know what, nyang? Those slave kids we freed from the warehouse earlier.”
“The people from Valrum’s library?”
“Yeah. I almost ended up the same way when I was little. Mom tried to sell me to a slave trader ’cause we were broke.”
Nami nodded faintly. She’d seen cases like that countless times in her past life. She’d even learned that maternal love doesn’t come naturally, so it didn’t shock her anymore.
“I always looked at the slaves in the holy city and thought, At least I’m better off than them. Better than those poor souls robbed of their futures... But what does that even mean now?”
“Means nothing.”
“Right. In the end, I was stuck in the same spot either way.”
The screeching of her dagger scraping the stone floor should’ve made her wince, but Nami didn’t mind. The letters she’d carved were “NoName” and “Adella.”
“This how you spell your name right?”
“Yeah. You nailed it this time, no mistakes.”
“What kinda nonsense is that, nyang? Continental common script’s a breeze for me! Anyway... I made a resolution starting today.”
Nami rested her chin in her hand, gazing steadily at her.
“I’m gonna build my skills without Laurel’s help and definitely pass the academy entrance.”
With a shy, excited tone, Adella laid out her ambition in detail.
“Didn’t you say you only get one shot at challenging the academy?”
“Pfft, for someone with no connections like me, faking an identity’s no biggie. And don’t I look pretty youthful, nyang?”
Adella shrugged her shoulders.
“Kids with presbyopia when young often end up baby-faced as adults.”
“What?! What’d you just mean by that, Forest Keeper?!”
They bickered stargazing for a while longer, until Nami suddenly let out a deep sigh.
“No guarantee the academy’s all that great.”
“You’ve been to one, nyang?”
“Yeah. Dropped out, though.”
“Why leave such a great place after getting in?”
Nami bit her lip and rolled her eyes around.
“For the academy to be someone’s paradise, it has to be someone else’s hell to balance out, right?”
“Hmm...”
“Bullies, classes that don’t suit you, professors discriminating based on your background.”
“Sounds spot on. Guess I’ll have to rethink it. Still, you know. Getting into the academy’s my lifelong dream. Deciding it’s hell without even going feels too much like admitting defeat, nyang?”
“That’s always been your personality. Unlike me, I think you’d adapt fine even if you went.”
“First time hearing you say something like that while we’re alive?”
Adella scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
Head to the academy's north gate and rendezvous with ‘Abyss’.
Fireworks exploded in the sky with the story prompt visible only to Nami.
“If something goes wrong with Alperion and Sisiela... what’ll you do?”
Nami asked Adella, who was ready to join up.
Adella scowled, as if it were a jinx.
“Obviously go save them!”
“Even if it means failing the mission?”
“Yeah.”
As they reached the academy headquarters, Adella couldn’t shake the eerie premonition blooming in her chest. Cat beastkin instincts were said to sometimes foresee near-future disasters, but right now, it felt like alarms blaring louder than that—ding ding ding.
That unease soon became reality. Sisiela staggered up, drenched in blood.
“Sisiela! What the hell happened?!”
“Tch... That old geezer was half right after all. Unfortunately, only half...”
“Hold up. Don’t pull it out.”
The Forest Keeper snatched Sisiela’s hand as she reached for the arrow in her thigh.
“Pulling it now’ll make the bleeding worse.”
“Can’t fight like this, can I?”
“Fight? In that condition? What are you even thinking?!”
Adella stomped her feet in frustration.
“Now I get why they sent just you two on such a dangerous mission. All our mercenaries betrayed us. Everyone from Abyss District 15 sided with the academy!”
“What about Alperion?!”
“He’s surrounded by guard squads and staff.”
“You’re really going? No, you can’t! Absolutely not!”
“Laurel’s here. I have to go help Alperion. Forest Keeper, don’t you dare abandon Adella. Promise me.”
Despite Adella’s pleas, the bear beastkin shoved her aside ruthlessly. With no choice after that plea to stop her, Nami took drastic measures.
Thwack! She struck the back of Sisiela’s neck hard with a sharpened hand blade, knocking her out.
“Take her.”
“Where to?”
“Anywhere. I’ll secure Alperion.”
“You’re talking crazy right n—”
“This time, I’ll come back alive for sure.”
With the Laurel of Life equipped, Nami vanished after those words.
Adella’s head burned hot as she realized she stood at a crossroads. No—there’d never been a choice to begin with. NoName had knocked out Sisiela out of worry for her joining. It meant: Leave now if you want to live.
Recall.
“What the hell am I supposed to recall?!”
Adella felt a phantom pain, like the laurel wreath tightening around her head.
Remember.
“Remember what?!”
Don’t forget.
Adella ran with everything she had. Leaving the flame-enshrouded city behind, ignoring the drunks screaming and scattering everywhere, she hoisted a comrade easily twice her weight and fled. Her thighs felt like they’d burst. Her heart pounded madly. Her soles must’ve been shredded long ago.
Hitting her physical limits, Adella’s body slowed bit by bit.
“Hah... hah... damn it all...!”
She finally stopped, turning back for the first time. The academy’s stately clock tower was out of sight. She’d charged ahead blindly and ended up in an unfamiliar area.
North side, so District 18? Maybe 20.
Districts 16 and up in the capital all looked identical; buildings alone couldn’t pinpoint location easily.
Sisiela’s bleeding had stopped, but she’d lost so much blood she was still unconscious. A miracle she was even breathing.
Adella leaned against a stone wall for a breather. Midnight chill crept up her back, prickling.
Drip. A raindrop fell on the bridge of her nose. She held out her palm, and a downpour soaked her sleeve.
“Just my luck, rain too...”
The brilliant starlight faded. Invisible thunderclouds must’ve blanketed them. Sure enough, lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the darkened world.
“Huh...?”
Adella’s eyes widened at the opposite stone wall. Clutching the dagger hidden in her bosom, she approached step by careful step.
“No way...”
Rumble—crash! Thunder shook the earth, her fur standing on end instinctively. She wanted to bolt, but she had to check.
The next flash confirmed it.
“Impossible...”
[NoName]
[Adella]
[NoName]
[Adella]
[NoName]
[Adella]
[NoName]
[Adella]
Rumble—crash!
“Hyaah!”
Adella’s mind reeled in chaos. On a hunch, she wedged her dagger into the letters’ grooves. Perfect fit in width and depth. Definitely carved by her blade.
“I’ve never been here...”
Who could’ve done this? No doppelganger existed. But lightning revealed letters in the exact same handwriting as those she’d carved chatting with NoName.
Adella channeled the Laurel’s power to cast the spell the Forest Keeper taught her.
Light
At the bottom of the wall, she spotted faint, shallow text she’d missed before.
[Return]